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Topic: [RM2k3] Mikkoku (Read 478 times)

Hey everyone! I'm here to post some information about my RPG Maker 2003 game - Mikkoku - which is slowly coming closer to its release date. Over ten years ago, I released the first version of my game. Ever since then I've been working on it with much passion, greatly expanding and improving upon everything that needed to be improved. Eventually I ended up re-creating pretty much every aspect of the game. I was actually surprised to see my (10 year!) old thread of the game's previous incarnation still being in the archives of this site ... including my announcement to rework the game - http://www.charas-project.net/forum/index.php?topic=21277.15.

Mikkoku is a game that I've been working on from 2003 till now, using the tool RPG Maker 2003. Mikkoku is modelled after the classic J-RPG games of the SNES-PS1 era and tries to combine their best elements to deliver the ultimate retro RPG experience. I am not ashamed to admit that the game relies on RTP graphics and resources from websites such as this site (charas-project) itself, since that also adds to its retro vibe.

The scope of the project is immense. The entire game is divided in 32 chapters, for a total of at least 60+ hours of gameplay. At the time of writing this, the first 31 chapters are done (save for bugfixes and finishing touches of course). After fourteen years of hard work, the game is finally nearing its completion game, so it's probably time for me to start talking about it and raise some awareness .

Of course, there's only so much information that fits inside a thread like this. If you wish to learn more about the game project, please visit the official site at http://www.mikkoku.org.

Setting & Story

The game takes place in a medieval / high fantasy setting with some steampunk elements here and there. The world is divided into several continents with city-states, kingdoms, republics and empires.

The world and everything in it is made up of the elements (not the scientific ones, mind you). In my setting, there's not just 4 of them (fire, water, earth and wind) but not less than 15: fire, ice, energy, water, earth, air, nature, ghost, light, dark, ore, slime, time, space and dragon. The essence of each of these is kept by a coin and it through studying these coins that mankind came to learn magic. Of course, these so-called elemental coins are also at the basis of the conflict that the game revolves around.

Mikkoku features a very large cast. It utilizes a similar system similar to the Suikoden games in which you acquire your own castle fairly early in the game and you get to recruit characters to strengthen your band of heroes. 2/3 of them will join you story-wise, while the others can be recruited through optional sidequests and the like. There's over 50 characters who you can put in your party, and over 30 recruitable characters who will help you out in other ways.

One of the things that I'm most proud of is the game's elaborate job system. While there are some characters who have the same job (there are two wizards, for instance), the majority of characters in the game each has his or her own job. In contrast to most games with a huge ensemble cast where most characters have somewhat the same gameplay (Suikoden comes to mind), almost every character is unique in Mikkoku.

I've tried very hard to get all of the "canon" jobs that appear in the earlier Final Fantasy games and add a few more. Samurai, Thief, Monk, Gambler, Geomancer, Dragoon, Dancer, etc. - they're all present. Mind you, RPG Maker 2003 is not very flexible to work with so it required a lot of creative thinking and out of the box solutions to get this done.

I gotta say this is the first time in my life I've felt that an RPG maker game might have too much content to ever complete! XD But I must congratulate you on your determination to try and finish it after ten years! That's about how long it took me to make a first game and I had a team! =O For that reason I vow to try your game, sir!